The black sun hangs high

Chapter 456 Heart
Since arriving in Vaan and completing the special "magical inscription" with the help of the Dream Sanctuary and Theseus, Hugh has often pondered what the huge disc that carries all his magical power and is completely integrated with his soul, spirit and will truly represents.
He had consulted books related to magical inscription more than once, and had asked mage scholars such as Vilin about this issue many times. However, the answer he received was always consistent and clear - the essence of magical inscription is to permanently imprint complex magical knowledge and the corresponding rituals into an individual's soul. It may affect an individual's memory, but it can never change an individual's soul.

Not to mention shaping a complex and figurative form.

Moreover, all the experiences and clues along the way have proven that this incredibly special giant disc is not only a manifestation of a powerful force, but also a symbol of meticulous rules from the past.

Only in this way can Hughes explain the strange signs that arise when it rotates and changes.

And now, it is shaking again.

Although what appeared before Hugh was merely a recorded image from a distant past, the traces of power remaining within it inevitably evoked a strange resonance.

An invisible tremor was telling Hugh that there was a close connection between him and the slender figure in the image.

Or, one could say, it's a connection between the soul and power.

"who are you?"

Hugh stared at the figure, his lips twitching slightly as he silently voiced the question that had been nagging at him.

As if hearing Hugh's question from afar, the figure in the image moved slightly, seemingly looking towards the "camera." The next instant, the previously smooth image abruptly stopped, and abnormal and chaotic strange lines filled Hugh's vision in an instant. They tangled and disturbed wildly, looking like an anomaly when the signal was interfered with, or like a sign of the impending break in magic.

Clearly, the recording of the video was forcibly interrupted due to the other party's deliberate interference.

After a moment, the distorted shadows and lines slowly subsided, but the scene did not return to its original state. Instead, it remained in deep darkness. However, the spiritual resonance on the metal disc did not stop. Hugh could even clearly hear the sound of the gears turning at a constant speed and meshing with each other.

As the darkness faded, the images reappeared, but this time they showed the scene inside the hall.

In the very center of the image, a slender figure slowly emerges from the last fortification built by the soldiers, her bewildered expression mirroring that of Hugh when he first arrived.

Hugh had no idea how the visitor had gotten through the meticulous and strict access control. Based on the resonance of the metal disc, he could only guess that the other party might also possess some kind of special "key," or some condition that matched a certain list.

This should have been a mystery worth exploring, but as the visitor stepped into the bright light, Hugh's eyes widened involuntarily.

In that fairly clear image, Hughes saw a familiar face.

The slender figure was clearly topped with the face of the goddess Mel, yet, beside this body, gloomy light and shadow constantly drifted and overflowed.

Hugh stared at the figure, and then he saw that, for a moment, the face of the goddess Mel trembled violently. It became incredibly blurry, looking like a mask made of thick black shadows. Then the "mask" returned to its original state and quickly condensed back into its original form.

The answer is ready to come out.

Theseus???

Hughes was utterly astonished by what he was seeing.

Although he had similar conjectures before, after watching the video recordings left by Engineer Wang, Hugh dismissed the possibility. After all, Theseus was, after all, a part of the Dark Abyss Palace system. According to the principles of the Continuation Base, Theseus would definitely be included in the list of those "must be eliminated".

However, none of this happened.

He walked slowly through the hall with the face of the goddess Mel, looking so bewildered that he resembled a beautiful but mindless puppet.

"I need to find out when this video was recorded."

Hugh turned his head and tentatively asked the terminal a question. Faced with this special question, the terminal gave a negative answer—although the time measurement system of the continuation base could still operate, with the spread of the power of the Dark Abyss and its impact on the world as a whole, the original time scale had been completely destroyed, and the measurement system without coordinates and references had naturally lost its effectiveness.

"He was using the face of the goddess Mel, and he looked to be in very poor condition... So, it's very likely that this happened after Mel left?"

Hughes made a bold conjecture, and then he saw Theseus, walking in the hall, begin to examine the surroundings and the dead.

As a special and powerful being, Theseus had no need to go through and organize things bit by bit like Hugh. Hugh saw that the slender figure that had been imitated and transformed stood in the very center of the hall. She floated up slightly, and a thick shadow spread out from under her body, materializing into intricate magical patterns.

Like rapidly growing black roots, these lines spread outward continuously, reaching every corner and every corpse in the hall with agility and speed, much like Hugh's Karron Touch.

However, they were extremely "gentle." The corpses that were touched were not actually moved. After an unusually simple contact, these black "roots" began to retract inward. After a few seconds, all the radiating shadows were completely withdrawn by Theseus. She landed slowly, and her originally empty and bewildered expression finally showed some changes.

She glanced at the bodies of the staff members closest to her, then lowered her head slightly, as if sighing, or perhaps mourning...

Hugh watched all this in silence. He was eager to know what Theseus had done next inside the base, but the video recording in the hall abruptly stopped. Hugh frowned and searched through the terminal, but could not find any records related to "Temporary Visitor 001".

"The fact that Visitor 001 is Theseus isn't particularly surprising, but why did he come here? And what kind of 'key' did he use to pass through the gate?"

Hugh took two steps back, looked at the terminal in front of him, and then at the glowing patterns under his feet that were still guiding him. His curiosity and confusion were overflowing.

"And what exactly did he do in this continuation base?"

Questions popped into Hugh's mind one after another. He pondered for two seconds, then followed the glowing patterns on the ground towards the deepest part of the archives. Logic told him that whatever Theseus's purpose in coming here, he couldn't bypass the core of the Continuation Base, namely the enormous beacon. "To this day, the Continuation Beacon is still functioning normally... which means that Theseus, after obtaining the information he wanted, did not choose to modify or operate the beacon itself."

As he walked, Hughes thought quickly: "Or perhaps, he didn't find the hidden archive room, nor did he manage to touch the core of the Continuation Beacon."

Amidst a series of possibilities, Hugh finally reached the end of those glowing lines, only to find not a terminal, but an elevator.

Hugh hesitated for two seconds before following the instructions and stepping inside. After completing the verification process once again, the elevator doors closed, and amidst the continuous vibrations, the elevator carried the lonely visitor toward the space beneath the Continuation Base.

Soon, the elevator came to a complete stop, the doors slowly opened, and what appeared before Hugh was yet another incredibly shocking scene.

The enormous metal cabinets that stored the past of countless civilizations continued down from above, like trees growing backwards, "hanging" above Hugh's head, orderly filling the ceiling of the entire underground space.

On the smooth, flat metal floor and walls, countless beams of light and shadow move along the intricate magical circuits, connecting every part of the place and every metal pillar that "grows" from the top, outlining a strange brilliance like the starry sky on their surfaces.

"boom……"

Just as the heart of a giant beast began to beat, a dull tremor resounded, and then Hugh saw countless rays of light drawn out from inside these metal cabinets. They flashed at an extremely fast speed along the interconnected patterns and converged in the same direction.

Thus, an extremely large shadow was successfully cast.

At the end of those patterns, Hugh saw an enormous machine, which looked like an exaggerated and magnificent metal cylinder that ran from bottom to top through the entire underground space. When the light representing the information of civilization successfully reached this cylinder, the instruments and indicator lights covering the surface of the metal cylinder also underwent obvious changes.

If we consider the heavy hum as the breathing of the "beast," then these flashing lights are clearly a concrete manifestation of the "beast's" thinking.

"Gather all the necessary information and fire it towards the target location using the 'cannon' of the Continuation Beacon... This should be the true core of the Continuation Base."

Hugh stood still, quietly observing the cycles of light and shadow several times, before finally stepping towards the massive metal cylinder.

As he got closer to the finish line, a strange sense of familiarity gradually welled up in his heart.

Here, Hugh clearly sensed the traces of residual Dark Abyss magic. In this strange world that was completely isolated, these traces did not fade with the normal passage of time, but were preserved with unparalleled clarity.

As Hugh sensed the lingering dark abyssal magic around him, he had an answer in his mind: "Theseus has already been here. It seems that he has also come into contact with the core part of this plan... It seems that he did not make many changes or modifications to the beacon itself. Is it because he does not care about the beacon itself? Or is it because he agrees with the plan itself?"

"Hmm... actually, none of them are quite accurate."

A familiar voice suddenly popped into Hugh's mind. It was Theseus's voice. He sounded like he had just woken up, his voice was a little muffled and lazy.

Before Hugh could react, Theseus continued, "The main reason I didn't change the thoughts of these dead is that their ideas were already very complete, and I had no need to modify or adjust them... And more importantly, this absurd plan has actually succeeded, so whether I change it or not is no longer important."

"..."

Hugh stopped in his tracks, took a deep breath, and then asked in his mind, "Did you just wake up, or...?"

"Of course I just woke up."

Theseus yawned with extreme laziness: "What, do you think I'm that untrustworthy? A sinister voyeur?"

"You know it yourself."

"Hehe, I respect your personal feelings very much. After all, this is a rare 'homecoming trip' for you, right? It's better if I don't get involved in this kind of thing."

At this point, the God of a Thousand Faces laughed: "Speaking of which, I originally thought that you might have some psychological problems after coming into contact with these truths, but I didn't expect you to accept them so quickly, just like me."

Hughes sighed: "If you had told me beforehand, I might have felt better."

"you sure?"

Theseus asked earnestly, "If I had told you before that the black sun that has been threatening Vaan is actually your homeland that has been swallowed and assimilated by the Abyss, would you have believed me?"

"...Probably not."

"That's not right."

Theseus's tone carried a hint of helplessness: "Sometimes, the truth is more absurd than a lie... I don't need to tell you that, do I?"

Hugh stood silently in place. He looked at the magic circuits that were constantly transmitting various messages, and then at the huge beacon cylinder that trembled like a heart. He asked, "Now that I have accepted what you call 'truth,' can you be a little more direct now?"

"of course."

"Alright, let's start with the purpose of your visit here... Temporary Visitor 001."

(End of this chapter)